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I felt like having a go at another lino print yesterday and got the fish above cut. It's just a fun graphic one, stylised, no observation at all I'm afraid, unlike Jeanette, who is doing a series of gyotaku fishes. Though I did remember from wildlife programmes that fishes are often reddish underneath and silvery on top to camouflage themselves from predators.

Rather than leave the lino the oblong shape, I decided to cut around the fish. Lino scanned and the image cleaned up

This one is simply playing with transparent layers of colour

This one involved applying a gradient colour in a lower layer, erasing the white background and painting colours on a layer below the fish, allowing the colours to shine through.

I find that simple traditionally printed lino cuts don't suit my work so I'll use oil paint when I have time to experiment with printing this one. Then I'll be able to use a mix of colours.

monotype: copyright Vivien BlackburnThis is a monotype I did some time ago - made by doing a random roll up of the printing plate with the honey/burnt sienna coloured printing ink. I then made cut out stencils from newspaper and overprinted with the black ink. With monotypes there can only be one, it isn't possible to recreate the print again. For this type of printing you don't need a printing press, you can just place the paper over the printing plate and rub the back with a baren or your palm to pick up the ink from the plate. He looks a bit cross at being disturbed.I've been looking at cats in art from the earliest times and found some beautiful examples :)In ancient Egypt they were of course revered but in medieval times their fortunes changed and they were seen as associated with magic, witches, licentiousness and wrongdoing. Hundreds of thousans were exterminated - leading to a rise in the rodent population and probably aiding the rise and spread of the plague - the…

Detail
I have always liked the calligraphic tangle of the hedges when they are sihouetted against the sky. Recent snowfall meant even more opportunities with amazing light and the landscape simplified and hidden by the snow, throwing hedges into relief.

Above is a detail of a double page sketch in the lovely Stillman and Birn Beta A4 hardback sketchbook. This paper is so forgiving and the watercolour works beautifully with it. It allowed me to work through wet washes with charcoal pencil - something that tears many papers, leaving holes. Some of the hedge is paint, some tinted charcoal.

First snow, more on the way, winter light: silhouetted hedges in watercolour and Derwent tinted charcoal in a Stillman and Birn A4 beta hardback sketchbook
The earlier warm golden glow of the low sun is covered by clouds, threatening more snow to come. The spiky calligraphic marks of the hedge and the underlying form of the bank, with some of the taller dried grasses showing through, interested…

I'm interested in painting the light and colours of landscapes as they change through seasons, the time of day or weather.
Seascapes feature strongly in my work as I love the coast, a love which developed when I lived near the sea as a child in Cornwall, Scotland, Malta and Gibraltar - each place with its special light and colour.
I realise too that I love the edges of things - for instance the coast, where the sea meets the land, the edges of woods where the trees meet the open fields.
I paint in most media and experiment with digital imagery - as a creative process related to my painting but also creating work that exists in its own right.
Another interest is photography, mainly as something in its own right, as I only rarely paint from photographs. The same elements interest me here as in my painting.
Apart from painting and photography, I teach art to adults and have all the normal preoccupations, trials and tribulations of women with families ... and cats.